Allow me to be the 10,000th member of the Cornell Community to say welcome, class of 2010. While others have welcomed you with free laundry bags, diversity classes and free beer, I would instead like to welcome you to Cornell by relating one of the most memorable moments of my freshman year.

I was among the many Cornellians who arose at 4:30 in the morning to line Ho Plaza in the hopes of buying Jon Stewart tickets. I was expecting several hours of frostbitten boredom. Oh how wrong I was.

I have witnessed dozens of protests, encountered every kind of liberal there is to meet, but the persistence of the Left never ceases to amaze me. Imagine my shock as I saw an Ithacite, in desperate need of a shower, walk down the line of restless students attempting to collect signatures for her anti-war petition. You must hand it to these liberals; their passion for being unemployed and decorating picket signs gives them the strength to wake at 5 a.m. and withstand the bitter cold using only a hemp bracelet and unwashed hair for warmth. My polite refusal to sign was met with the predictable, yet timeless liberal defense mechanism: a profanity laden tirade that would make an eight year-old in a toy store blush.

As her temper tantrum drew to a close, I couldn’t help but think of my past encounters with one of our country’s finest.

Something seemed very different as I walked into my Near Eastern studies lecture. I narrowed it down to two factors: a) the sharp decline in attendance or b) the 6’3’’ square jawed man sitting in my row. It came as no surprise to me that he was in the military. I was, however, caught off guard when he began to talk of his tour in Fallujah as a member of Marine Recon. This is a story that you will not find printed in any newspaper or emblazoned across the cover of any Rolling Stone magazine. Rolling Stone and the like will only cover stories of “important” soldiers (e.g. the chronicles of deserters fleeing to Canada because of their hatred for Bush). This marine’s story had nothing to do with politics, but everything to do with the truth; although sometimes the former will serve a larger purpose than the latter. His experience was of far greater importance than any WMD or political squabble. His was a soldier’s story, an ironically rare commodity in an age where the public entrusts its information to The New York Times and CNN.

This marine’s morale began a downward spiral the second his right foot touched U.S. soil. And it had nothing to do with the “ferocity” of the insurgency, or the “strength” of terrorist opposition, or any other hateful coward that he faced in Iraq. It did, however, have everything to do with the media at home.

It is simple, really.

He knows the way that those “American” journalists report the news. When MSNBC looks at the insurgency, they see “ferocity” and “strength;” the marines look at the same insurgency and see desperation and cowardice. This is because Chris Matthews will confer with 8 year-old Ahmed, suicide bomber in training, regarding the “strength” of the insurgency, instead of our American soldiers. The reason is obvious: Ahmed’s extensive knowledge regarding the Zionist conspiracy to crash planes into buildings and frame the religion of peace obviously qualifies him as a military consultant.

But this type of inequity and bias was tolerable when he was in Iraq. This is because he was surrounded by people that knew better. He is aware that he is a hero. This soldier, however, also recognizes that he is no longer in control of his reputation. The media will now decide if they are to recognize our veterans as heroes or if they are going to create another generation of “baby-killers” and “murderers.”

This perception will be based not on this marine’s battlefield heroism, but on the position and timing of the camera. Did The New York Times show him carrying an exhausted child home? Will that photo make the front page under some positive headline, or become entombed so far into the newspaper that apathy will render the picture virtually invisible? Did he capture a snapshot of a crying girl being enveloped in the arms of a big scary soldier, or did he take a picture of the hug she gave him at the door?

Sadly, we all know the answer to those questions.

The press corps’ coverage of Israel’s battle against Hezbollah is a shining example of how embedded journalism truly functions. Doctored photos of seemingly brutal scenes of war appeared everywhere. Anguished mothers were crying at bomb sites two weeks apart in different cities. Ambulances were lined up and then pictures were taken depicting them rushing to the scene of an “Israeli airstrike.” We know who the press is rooting for in this war.

For every one abused prisoner, there are schools and roads being built, children being fed and tens of thousands soldiers trying desperately to show us that they are the best we have to offer. It is too bad that we do not care to see it.

This man fought for freedom-craving Iraqis and a bunch of spoiled, yet free Americans. He visited his friend at Cornell and saw just how grateful all of us students were. We should have rolled out the red carpet for him and treated him like the hero he is. But we didn’t; we rolled out a whole new anti-war petition filled with the same signatures as the last one. Shame on us …

Billy McMorris is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at wjm27@cornell.edu. John Manetta Once Told Me appears Tuesdays.